Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 10.djvu/330

316 was agitating the nations to their very foundations, that it was ameliorating the lot of man, increasing his power, and dealing remorselessly with old ideas, the fictions and fallacies of the past!

Can we wonder, then, that those who were growing up in the midst of these marvels should not only contrast the activity by which they were surrounded with the stagnation of preceding centuries, but should demand to be made acquainted with the power that was thus opening a new world before their eyes? Very soon it became apparent that there was no provision in the existing educational establishments, the universities and colleges, for this unexpected state of things. These were, to be sure, good enough to initiate a bench of boys into the method of translating an ode of Horace or a few lines of Sophocles, but something more substantial than that was wanted now.

This was the true cause of that influence which began to be felt in America about 1840. Every reflecting person saw that a change in public education was imperative; nay, more was impending. Confronted by the vigor of modern ideas, the system that had come down from the dark ages was seen to have become obsolete.

In addition to these influences, there was another at which we must for a moment glance. Let me, in a few words, sketch its history.

The peninsula of Italy was separated from the rule of the Greek emperors in the eighth century, mainly in consequence of the iconoclastic dispute. Partly through the stress of circumstances, and partly as a matter of policy, the Latin language was brought into such prominence that it was supposed to contain all the useful knowledge in the world. In Western Europe, at the close of the fourteenth century, Greek was totally forgotten.

But when it became clear that Constantinople would be taken by the Turks, many learned men fled to the West, bringing with their language precious classical manuscripts. As it was feared, however, by the dominant authority that knowledge and opinions of an unsuitable kind might thus be introduced, Greek obtained a foothold with much difficulty, and it was only by the aid of Florence, Venice, and other commercial towns of Upper Italy, that after a struggle it made good its ground. The Latin had now a successful rival.

A century later brings us to the culmination of the Reformation. Its literary issue was an admiration of the language of that much-enduring, that immortal race to whom the Old Testament is so largely due. As had been the case with Greek, so now Hebrew passed from a condition of neglect to one of extravagant exaltation. It was believed to have been the original language of the human race, a conviction that proved to be a great stumbling-block to the progress of learning. There were thus three classical languages, each having its own paramount claim.

In 1784 the Royal Asiatic Society was instituted in Bengal. One